Google Assistant has now added a second voice in nine different countries on Android, Home, and Smart Displays. While in the U.S. Google already has 11 different voices, the other parts of the world had just one.
New voices are available for Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Norwegian in their respective countries. Also, new English voices are being launched in India and the U.K.
Google is trying to make a shift from gendering its assistant, and so the new voices will be traditionally male-sounding, but neither voice will come with a gendered name or description. And hence the voices will be referred by color. Example, one might be named as “red,” and the other might be named as “orange” and even these colors will be presented randomly.
Last year, Google added six new voices at I/O and rounded out the year with two more. The last addition was in April with the John Legend “Cameo” voice that brought the U.S. English total to 11.
To use the new Google Assistant voice, follow the steps – navigate to “More” in the bottom bar > Settings > Google Assistant > Assistant tab > Assistant voice. It will be available on Android phones and tablets, Google Home, and Smart Displays this week.